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The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #440-441
Spider-Man: The Gathering of Five
Power. Immortality. Wisdom. Madness. Death. All those who partake in the mysterious Gathering of Five will gain one of these mystical gifts - but whichever one the Green Goblin gets, Spider-Man's in for the fight of his life! What part do Madame Web, Molten Man and the Scriers play in Norman Osborn's sinister machinations? Which of Spider-Man's loved ones has risen from the grave, and how does her return spell doom for humanity? And after all this, will Peter Parker hang up the webs for good?
COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 440-441, Spider-Man (1990) 96-98, Sensational Spider-Man (1996) 32-33, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) 262-263
COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 440-441, Spider-Man (1990) 96-98, Sensational Spider-Man (1996) 32-33, Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) 262-263
248 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2013
37 people want to read
About the author
Howard Mackie
1,024 books33 followersHoward Mackie is an American comic book editor and writer. He has worked almost exclusively for Marvel Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 22, 2022
Norman Osborn trucking with evil supernatural artefacts? For a 90’s event comic this wasn’t half bad - and even more surprising, having parachuted John Byrne in to write or co-write a couple of issues (so late in his career, having burned many bridges with his insufferable being), his issues were decent enough not to hardly notice his influence. Not a thong or ridiculous female pose in sight!
Plenty of ridiculous plot points abound tho:
- I’m sorry, how is Joe Robertson (a) explaining and (b) funding international excursions to find Spidey rogues, as the editor of a terrible news rag?
- Wait, so Osborn senior was reborn and Harry Osborn is dead? For how long? By whose hand? Skipping over the entirety of the 90’s has left me with so many gaps in my supreme knowledge of Spider-Man
- Norman Osborn co-owns the Bugle in this timeline? That’s almost beats Mayor Kingpin
- Kinda intrigued by the repeated mentions of MJ’s kid, in such hushed and sombre tones. Did she miscarry? Did the baby get born and then die? Was it abducted by aliens, then given up in exchange for galactic peace? (Like that isn’t a story at least once in Marvel’s history)
Then they really dove deep into “did they or didn’t they” territory:
- Wait, all this talk of May being alive - did MJ and Peter name their daughter May? Is Aunt May dead in this timeline? Did Osborn kidnap the elder or newborn May? So many Questions!
- OMG this is hilarious. Spidey firmly confirms that the woman Osborn had imprisoned is actually his months-dead Aunt May, and Reed immediately informs Spidey that she has some irretrievable device in her brain that will kill her very soon.
- I am so glad for the modern era of Spidey where Aunt May isn’t perennially on the brink of death. This one is like a parody of all that’s come before.
- I kept waiting for it to be revealed that Osborn didn’t get “Power” from the mystical device, but “Madness” - and that everything since that moment in this event has been Osborn’s fantasy of how things should’ve worked out for him.
- Spoiler alert (if a weak sort): oh goodie, the once-a-decade killing of Spider-Man by Green Goblin. Yawn.
And I was right! The only “out” from Norman Osborn acquiring world-ending power was to call it a dream; Spidey had the mad gibbering idiot webbed up, just after Normie “finally killed” his arch-foe. Must’ve been a huge letdown after all that, if you were reading these comics as they came out - and that’s saying something after the whole “the Aunt May who died was just a genetically altered actress hired by Osborn to drive Peter crazy” or some bullshit. It’s not quite “am I the clone?” level of stupid, but it’s close enough that I’m glad I never went through that.
And seriously, who takes an acting job like that? Forget the final act - she probably didn’t know it was her final role - but who at her age even takes a gig to impersonate someone else’s Aunt, in a domestic setting? Is that seriously the best that editorial or one of these writers could come up with?
Oh wait, but it gets even more absurd: the device that Norman Osborn implant deep inside Aunt May’s skull will set off a series of Bombs if it’s exposed to air. And Reed Richards is performing the surgery. And why was there any doubt that Reed Richards couldn’t think of a way to keep this thing from being exposed to air? Choose any of these immediate options: (1) Get Sue to wrap it in a force bubble during extraction, (2) shunt it into the depths of space, or (3) send it to the Negative Zone (Reed’s personal dung heap).
Oh, and this event ends with Peter throwing away the tights? Shocker of shockers, hope it sticks this time!
(Spoiler: it didn’t stick)
For those of you who like me are reading this on Marvel Unlimited and not pre-collected in a single contiguous volume, this is the reading order of the individual issues (which took me a surprising amount of effort to decipher - I hate reading stuff out of order, hard enough to keep track of what's what):
1. TSSM 32
2. ASM 440
3. PPSM 96
4. SSM 262
5. TSSM 33
6. ASM 441
7. PPSM 97
8. SSM 263
9. PPSM 98
Plenty of ridiculous plot points abound tho:
- I’m sorry, how is Joe Robertson (a) explaining and (b) funding international excursions to find Spidey rogues, as the editor of a terrible news rag?
- Wait, so Osborn senior was reborn and Harry Osborn is dead? For how long? By whose hand? Skipping over the entirety of the 90’s has left me with so many gaps in my supreme knowledge of Spider-Man
- Norman Osborn co-owns the Bugle in this timeline? That’s almost beats Mayor Kingpin
- Kinda intrigued by the repeated mentions of MJ’s kid, in such hushed and sombre tones. Did she miscarry? Did the baby get born and then die? Was it abducted by aliens, then given up in exchange for galactic peace? (Like that isn’t a story at least once in Marvel’s history)
Then they really dove deep into “did they or didn’t they” territory:
- Wait, all this talk of May being alive - did MJ and Peter name their daughter May? Is Aunt May dead in this timeline? Did Osborn kidnap the elder or newborn May? So many Questions!
- OMG this is hilarious. Spidey firmly confirms that the woman Osborn had imprisoned is actually his months-dead Aunt May, and Reed immediately informs Spidey that she has some irretrievable device in her brain that will kill her very soon.
- I am so glad for the modern era of Spidey where Aunt May isn’t perennially on the brink of death. This one is like a parody of all that’s come before.
- I kept waiting for it to be revealed that Osborn didn’t get “Power” from the mystical device, but “Madness” - and that everything since that moment in this event has been Osborn’s fantasy of how things should’ve worked out for him.
- Spoiler alert (if a weak sort): oh goodie, the once-a-decade killing of Spider-Man by Green Goblin. Yawn.
And I was right! The only “out” from Norman Osborn acquiring world-ending power was to call it a dream; Spidey had the mad gibbering idiot webbed up, just after Normie “finally killed” his arch-foe. Must’ve been a huge letdown after all that, if you were reading these comics as they came out - and that’s saying something after the whole “the Aunt May who died was just a genetically altered actress hired by Osborn to drive Peter crazy” or some bullshit. It’s not quite “am I the clone?” level of stupid, but it’s close enough that I’m glad I never went through that.
And seriously, who takes an acting job like that? Forget the final act - she probably didn’t know it was her final role - but who at her age even takes a gig to impersonate someone else’s Aunt, in a domestic setting? Is that seriously the best that editorial or one of these writers could come up with?
Oh wait, but it gets even more absurd: the device that Norman Osborn implant deep inside Aunt May’s skull will set off a series of Bombs if it’s exposed to air. And Reed Richards is performing the surgery. And why was there any doubt that Reed Richards couldn’t think of a way to keep this thing from being exposed to air? Choose any of these immediate options: (1) Get Sue to wrap it in a force bubble during extraction, (2) shunt it into the depths of space, or (3) send it to the Negative Zone (Reed’s personal dung heap).
Oh, and this event ends with Peter throwing away the tights? Shocker of shockers, hope it sticks this time!
(Spoiler: it didn’t stick)
For those of you who like me are reading this on Marvel Unlimited and not pre-collected in a single contiguous volume, this is the reading order of the individual issues (which took me a surprising amount of effort to decipher - I hate reading stuff out of order, hard enough to keep track of what's what):
1. TSSM 32
2. ASM 440
3. PPSM 96
4. SSM 262
5. TSSM 33
6. ASM 441
7. PPSM 97
8. SSM 263
9. PPSM 98
October 22, 2020
The Gathering of Five collects two separate storylines that brought to an end all of the current Spider-man books and would set the stage for a late 1990s relaunch of Spider-man. The book is helped having read some of the other post-Clone War storylines including things like Spider-hunt and Identity Crisis. Those stories give you a flavor of the sort of hell that Norman Osborne was putting Peter through and all the manipulations going on.
As a climax to that arc, I think this mostly works. The idea of bringing five people together with three promised three gifts while one gets death and the other gets madness is really chilling. The confrontations between Peter and the Green Goblin are good. The decisions and the struggle with Mary Jane is fine and works well. There's a lot of solid surprises and turns, and the art is decent.
The last issue did leave me with a lot of mixed feelings. First, I think the last issue should have been in Amazing Spider-man rather than Peter Parker, Spider-man. Second, it kind of used a big cheat to escape the consequences of the cliffhanger at the end of the previous issue. The issue does end with Peter ending his time as Spider-man and the reason for that is not very well-founded. It's part of a precedent that Marvel would follow in years to come with characters acting how the writers need them to act rather than in ways that are consistent with who they have been stablished to be. Still, that's to read this story through later ones which isn't wise.
This one works pretty well. There are some very nice payoffs and resolutions, great characters, some good plot twists and plenty of excitement. Overall, a decent enough conclusion for nearly 40 years of Spidey history even if stuck the landing a little.
As a climax to that arc, I think this mostly works. The idea of bringing five people together with three promised three gifts while one gets death and the other gets madness is really chilling. The confrontations between Peter and the Green Goblin are good. The decisions and the struggle with Mary Jane is fine and works well. There's a lot of solid surprises and turns, and the art is decent.
The last issue did leave me with a lot of mixed feelings. First, I think the last issue should have been in Amazing Spider-man rather than Peter Parker, Spider-man. Second, it kind of used a big cheat to escape the consequences of the cliffhanger at the end of the previous issue. The issue does end with Peter ending his time as Spider-man and the reason for that is not very well-founded. It's part of a precedent that Marvel would follow in years to come with characters acting how the writers need them to act rather than in ways that are consistent with who they have been stablished to be. Still, that's to read this story through later ones which isn't wise.
This one works pretty well. There are some very nice payoffs and resolutions, great characters, some good plot twists and plenty of excitement. Overall, a decent enough conclusion for nearly 40 years of Spidey history even if stuck the landing a little.
May 29, 2024
The series of bait-and-switches keeping this story moving are doing as much legwork as Spider-Man holding up the crumbling Daily Bugle foundations in its climax. This is truly painful stuff. Not a single story beat has any kind of weight, or even any permanence in Spider-Man continuity; disregarding the past 22 years in which subsequent writers have spent ignoring this drivel, it doesn't feel as if the thing you just read a page ago is going to matter in two more issues, or even two more pages.
And that's a huge shame, as this storyline handles some of the most serious things to ever happen to its main characters. The trauma of losing a daughter, the return of a family member thought dead, the return of the single most evil figure in the hero's life—who is single-handedly responsible for every great pain in the whole of Spider-Man comic history, every single thread for potentially interesting storytelling is flirted with and promptly thrown directly into the garbage.
These comics would be best experienced after whiting out every speech bubble and text box, and piecing the thing together with the art alone. I guarantee you that what your imagination will conjure will be better than what's written.
And that's a huge shame, as this storyline handles some of the most serious things to ever happen to its main characters. The trauma of losing a daughter, the return of a family member thought dead, the return of the single most evil figure in the hero's life—who is single-handedly responsible for every great pain in the whole of Spider-Man comic history, every single thread for potentially interesting storytelling is flirted with and promptly thrown directly into the garbage.
These comics would be best experienced after whiting out every speech bubble and text box, and piecing the thing together with the art alone. I guarantee you that what your imagination will conjure will be better than what's written.
December 10, 2023
Any story exploring the mania of Norman Osborn is a good one, generally speaking, and these series went out with a bang instead of a whimper. That said, it was a bit supernatural for my liking but still a fun read for me.
July 9, 2017
This book was surprisingly decent.
February 10, 2024
Scriers are gonna get you.
November 6, 2023
The gist- Norman Osborn, a/k/a the Green Goblin, goes on a quest to find five willing participants to help him perform a ceremony called the Coming Together (or Gathering) of the Five. There are four arcane stone pieces and a center spindle which all must be placed together. Once completed, there are five gifts which will be dispersed among the participants: Power, Knowledge, Immortality, Death, and Madness. Along the way we see the return of the Molten Man,who is duped much like everyone else by Norman Osborn. The whole Norman-Osborn-has-been-pulling-the-strings-all-along bit was hard to swallow at times, but I was more than able to buy it, especially when you consider some of the crap that they try to pass off on us nowadays.
I can see why lots of long time readers became disenfranchised with the title during this time even if I do not share that sentiment. Yes, making Osborn a part of some Goblin cult (the Scriers) seems a bit a of a stretch and yes, the Aunt May thing was a cop out, but it is still better than the last few issues of Amazing Spider-Man leading up to the ill-advised #700. I'll take a baby stealing goblin cult and kidnapped Aunt May over the so-called Superior Spider-Man.
By this time, the newer artists were all moving away from their Image-influenced roots and finding their own voice. Luke Ross has shown improvements by leaps and bounds just a couple of years after he started drawing the character. Rafael Kanayan is an artist who doesn't seem to be in the comic book business anymore but whose work I enjoy. Of course John Romita, Jr.'s artwork is incredible. His work has more aggressive styling during this era which I like.
Boy that Marvel sure is sneaky. While some of their collected editions of '90s material seem to be piecemeal, random arcs thrown out there in a trade paperback for no reason, those of us who watch closely begin to see a pattern of large runs collected across several books. This remains a great time to be a collected editions fan. When I started buying these books eleven or so years ago I could scarcely dream that we would ever get this far, or how this hobby would force me into a life of male prostitution to help pay for my habit. If loving this lifestyle is wrong, then I don't want to be right!
I can see why lots of long time readers became disenfranchised with the title during this time even if I do not share that sentiment. Yes, making Osborn a part of some Goblin cult (the Scriers) seems a bit a of a stretch and yes, the Aunt May thing was a cop out, but it is still better than the last few issues of Amazing Spider-Man leading up to the ill-advised #700. I'll take a baby stealing goblin cult and kidnapped Aunt May over the so-called Superior Spider-Man.
By this time, the newer artists were all moving away from their Image-influenced roots and finding their own voice. Luke Ross has shown improvements by leaps and bounds just a couple of years after he started drawing the character. Rafael Kanayan is an artist who doesn't seem to be in the comic book business anymore but whose work I enjoy. Of course John Romita, Jr.'s artwork is incredible. His work has more aggressive styling during this era which I like.
Boy that Marvel sure is sneaky. While some of their collected editions of '90s material seem to be piecemeal, random arcs thrown out there in a trade paperback for no reason, those of us who watch closely begin to see a pattern of large runs collected across several books. This remains a great time to be a collected editions fan. When I started buying these books eleven or so years ago I could scarcely dream that we would ever get this far, or how this hobby would force me into a life of male prostitution to help pay for my habit. If loving this lifestyle is wrong, then I don't want to be right!
April 3, 2014
The whole story is completely ridiculous so if you want to read some unintentional comedy featuring Spiderman you might like this story, I sure did. However, there is nothing good in this volume. The art is mostly reminiscent of the 90's with a lot of flashy colors everywhere. The story is convoluted just for the sake of putting out several issues of story but there is nothing to it. Also, the last reveal about the Goblin's plot is a very stupid idea and hammers the ridiculousness of the whole story one last time before some "giant event that will be forgotten in two month". This is not as bad as the clone saga but it shows how desperate Marvel was at the time to create some excitement. Thank Cthulhu that Howard Mackie doesn't work in the comics industry anymore.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews